 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Grand Opening events on Wednesday, April 15
Monticello will mark the Grand Opening of the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center on Wednesday, April 15, with a full day of activities.
The centerpiece of the day will be an 11 a.m. event celebrating Thomas Jefferson’s lasting legacies that will feature remarks by award-winning authors and historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Michael Beschloss. The event will be followed at 12:30 p.m. by the public opening of the new center. All of these events will be free and open to the public.
The Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center will serve as the 21st-century gateway to Monticello. The 42,000-square-foot facility is the largest capital project and most ambitious educational initiative in the history of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private, nonprofit corporation that has owned and operated Monticello since 1923.
Located on the lower slope of Monticello mountain, the center comprises five pavilions around a central courtyard. The three-level complex follows the contour of its hillside setting and blends into the wooded landscape with natural building materials, two “green” roofs, and other environmentally sensitive elements.
The center’s visitor amenities – a café with indoor and outdoor seating, a spacious gift shop, and an indoor ticket and information counter – were opened in November 2008. April 15 will mark the public unveiling of the interpretive features – a powerful introductory film, four innovative exhibitions, and a hands-on activity room for children – that will transform the visitor experience through dynamic content presenting fresh perspectives on Monticello and the enduring significance of Jefferson’s life and ideas.
The April 15 festivities will begin on the mountaintop at 9 a.m. Visitors will be able to meet “Thomas Jefferson” as portrayed by Bill Barker of Williamsburg, hear period fiddle music played by Pete Vigour, engage in hands-on activities designed for children, view displays on different aspects of Monticello, and see a hot-air balloon replicating the Montgolfier balloon Jefferson saw in France in the 1780s. At 10:30, the Charlottesville Municipal Band will begin playing selections of patriotic music.
The highlight of the 11 a.m. West Lawn event will be the remarks by Gordon-Reed and Beschloss, two of the nation’s most prominent historians. Gordon-Reed is professor of law at New York Law School, professor of history at Rutgers University-Newark, and author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, for which she received a 2008 National Book Award. Beschloss is the author of numerous books, including Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989; appears frequently on PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; and is NBC News’ presidential historian. The program also will feature music by the Charlottesville Municipal Band and the Combined Choir of the Union Run Baptist Church in nearby Keswick, a congregation that was founded after the Civil War by former Monticello slaves. Visitors who plan to attend this event are urged to arrive at Monticello by 10 a.m.
At 12:30 p.m., all doors of the new visitor center will be opened to the public with streamers, music by the Williamsburg Field Musick fife and drum corps, complimentary souvenirs, and other festive elements. The film Thomas Jefferson’s World, the four exhibitions in the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Gallery, and the Griffin Discovery Room – a hands-on activity space for families with children – in the Smith Education Center will be open to all visitors through 5 p.m.
While the events associated with the opening of the new center will be free of charge, admission tickets will be required for the guided tours of the Monticello house, which will be offered from 8:30 to 10 a.m. and from 1 to 5 p.m. Reserved tickets for these tours are available through Monticello’s Web site, www.monticello.org.
« Back to Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center